'People are scared of talking about suicide'

Jonny Benjamin made headlines in January with the #FindMike campaign, an
attempt to find the man who stopped him jumping off Waterloo Bridge six
years ago. He tells Theo Merz why he made a film about the search and
why we need to talk more about mental health problems

Jonny Benjamin, left, with Neil Laybourn, the man who talked him away from the edge of the bridge Photo: Rethink Mental Health

On January 14, 2008, Jonny Benjamin left the hospital where he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and got on a train to Waterloo, where he planned to kill himself by jumping off the bridge.

But a man walking across the bridge on his way to work saw what he was doing and struck up a conversation. He told Benjamin, then just 20 years old, that he didn’t need to do this, that things could get better and suggested they go for a coffee. Before they could talk further, the police arrived to take Benjamin back to hospital, where he was sectioned.

In January this year, Benjamin launched a campaign with theRethink Mental Health charityto "find Mike", the nickname he gave the man who talked him away from the edge of the bridge. The story captured the public imaginationand went round the world, with the hashtag #FindMike trending on Twitter as far away as South Africa and Australia.

Today, a documentary recording the search will be shown at the BFI Southbank, London, before being released online via YouTube and the Rethink Mental Health website.

In the film, a number of people claiming to be "Mike" contact Benjamin - some of whom are fantasists, but a surprising number of whom had actually talked people out of suicide at around the same time - before he finds Neil Laybourn, the personal trainer who saved his life.

He also speaks to families who have been affected by suicide as well as strangers in the street about their own experiences of mental health issues.

“I really just wanted to raise awareness of suicide,” says Benjamin, who now works full-time for Rethink Mental Health, ahead of the documentary’s release. “People are scared of tackling it. There’s a myth that it will encourage people who are vulnerable to take their lives. It’s an issue we tend to ignore as a society, despite the fact that it takes 16 lives a dayin this country.”

He adds that the rate of suicide among men has remained unchanged over the last 30 years- with suicide currently the biggest killer of young men in the UK - while the rate among the female population has decreased by almost 50 per cent over the same period.

So why are men so susceptible? “It’s the culture of having to ‘man up’, of not being able to express your feelings,” the 27-year-old says. He started experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hearing voices, at the age of 10 and symptoms of depression from 16, but says he was too embarrassed to ask for help. “I think it comes down to education in school. There’s a lack of mental health education.

“Growing up, the only time I ever saw men show their emotion, the only time I saw men cry, was when I went with my dad to watch Crystal Palace play football. It is really strange that you can be who you are when you enter a stadium, but as soon as you step out you have to bottle it up again.

“It would have made such a difference to me if someone had come into school and said it’s OK to struggle, that men do have these thoughts.”

Benjamin also thinks major changes need to be made to the way the NHS responds to mental health issues. When he first went to see his GP as a student at Manchester Metropolitan University, she suggested he change his diet and do more exercise. He felt like his depression was not taken seriously enough and was apprehensive about seeking help again.

Then, in his final year of university he had a breakdown and had to be hospitalised. “By this point I was really unwell. I thought I was being possessed by the devil; one night I ran out onto a dual carriageway; I was out of control.”

He urges anyone struggling with suicidal thoughts or depression to confide in someone about it - whether this is a family member, a medical professional or a helpline volunteer. Benjamin himself has felt suicidal on a number of occasions since that morning on Waterloo Bridge, but says he has been able to get through this by talking to friends or just writing his thoughts down.

Now, though, the Londoner feels his depression is behind him and manages his schizophrenia not with medication - which was making him feel tired and numb - but throughCognitive Behavioural Therapy and mindfulness, a technique which focuses on living in the present.

And he remains friends with Neil Laybourn, the "Mike" he found earlier this year. “I was so nervous just before meeting him,” Benjamin remembers of their first encounter in a room above a Vauxhall pub. “But he really put me at ease. As soon as I started talking to him it was like we were long lost friends.

“We grew up in similar areas of north London and we have friends like each other in our social groups. I see him every few weeks and we always have a good laugh - though obviously I’ll never forget what he did for me.”